I have an AI on order, and I am doing the trailer search. I would like the option to carry 2 A I's if possible. Ideally those 2 could have ama's intact, but not essential. I am wondering if they could be stacked on top of each other, on appropriate cradles. Would that rule out the Rack and Roll trailer ??? has anyone else tried to carry 2 AI's ?

IMHO there are two advantages to having them side-by-side rather than stacked. One is simply that they are easier to load and unload with less opportunities to bang and damage things. The other is that you can rig both boats before you drive down the ramp. Slip them off the trailer and off you go.

Personally, I want to exhaust myself sailing, not loading and rigging the boats.

The tower and storage box is another great idea. To my knowledge Hobie has not shipped any of the towers yet. I had a local welder make mine. We have a Yakama box that opens from either side.

I don't have an AI but did buy a Rack and Roll trailer. I carry 4 Hobie kayaks. I agree with Rio Dan that stacking would be more work.

The cross bars on the Rack and Roll are 65". You could purchase longer ones and with cradles should have a great set up. The trailer is easy to handle when unhooked from your vehicle, even with the AI loaded. You will want the longer tongue that is available. My Revolution at 13'-5" just makes it with the the standard one.

You will need to give it some thought as not every item is not for everyone. However I the Rack and Roll was worth the price.

IMHO there are two advantages to having them side-by-side rather than stacked. One is simply that they are easier to load and unload with less opportunities to bang and damage things.

With 2 X AI's at 1.06 M each with ama's folded . That means they will be a minumum 6 " wider than my troopie. That wont be an issue for the vast majority of my destinations, and for the occasional extended road trip, I can easily derig ..... put the 2 outside amas in the vehicle or on roof racks ...... hey ... I have answered my own question ... cheers all !!

Here is how I solved the problem. I had originally built a trailer to carry both my kayaks and my Zodiac, but I still had to disassemble the kayaks to store them on the trailer, and when I didn't have the Zodiac on the trailer, the whole thing was too top heavy and dangerous to drive (see http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewt ... 2f85dc0aac post).

Next I found someone who was selling a 20' x 8' trailer that was used to carry an ultra-light airplane. It's wide enough for two AI side by side, I just has to figure out how to support the kayaks so that the braces wouldn't dent the bottom. The following pictures how the result.

First the whole trailer from the side and from above:

I included a big diamond-plate truck box to store all the gear (mirage drives, center boards, drysuit, etc.).

To support the kayaks I added two wood braces across the whole trailer: one immediately in front of the plugin cart wheels, and the other about when the mast support is. The rear braces were the hard ones because the main hull and the two amas are at different hight. I use foam blocks to prevent denting of the hulls, and I mounted the center support on a hinged frame so that it conforms to the hull when I roll the kayaks on. Here are the three supports and a detail of the hinge.

The black tube on the size is a 4" ABS tube to store the mast with the sail rolled around it.

Once I roll the kayak on, and lower the nose to the forward support, the support is high enough that the plugin cart no longer support the kayak (this prevent denting while allowing me to leave the cart in place for faster launching and storage).

I also built a ramp to get the kayaks on and off easily. I had to make it 10' long in order for the slope to be gentle enough that the stern of the amas would drag on the ground when starting the kayaks on the ramp.

As my son demonstrates, you really have the keep the nose low in order to not drag the stern. And I need to add a brace at the middle of the ramp!

The first time I put all this together, I used regular trailer lights, but I promptly backed the trailer into a post smashing one of the light and shorting the trailer light control box. As I didn't want this to happen again, I ended up mounting new round lights in the end caps of the two sail tubes that are on each side of the trailer (protected by the deck). Here are the details.

And with the cap removed to access the mast:

Getting the kayaks to the water is now a snap. All I have to do is roll them off the trailer, step in the mast, put in the mirage drives and center board and off I go. Less time on the parking lot = more time on the water!

Nice work xavier ........ you have got me thinkin'. My Ai will be here in a few weeks, and I have commissioned the local engineering works to make a trailer from scratch. It SHOULD be less than half the price of the Rack and Roll or the Hobie. Its a basic "T" trailer about 16 feet long.I am using 13 " gal wheels and the tubing is just Supa Gal ( time constraints prevent me from getting it hot gal dipped.) i will mount the Hobie made cradles on 2 cross members. All this seems straight forward, but I am now wondering if I could build a few labour saving features into the trailer from the start. The majority of my launches can be from a boat ramp, but if there is a queue ....... or I travel to inland lakes, then the ability to use a trolly to the water would be essential. Does one slide the AI back while its in the cradles then maybe prop the stern up and slip the trolly under it ???? Would a small pulley at the front of the trailer be handy to pull the bow up onto the trailer whilst guiding it from the stern ???? Would a nice big roller at the back of the trailer be handy to place the bow on when reloading ???? Any thoughts on last minute trailer construction ??? ....... what ever the outcome, I am indebted to this site and shall take lots of pics and post them in here. Cheers all.

I haven't studied the Hobie cradles in detail but the amas flare out from the hull toward the nose. So sliding the AI on the cradle may be a problem.

This is in part what got me to devise my own custom solution, as I didn't want to spend $400 for cradles only to find that I couldn't use them. And as you pointed out, waiting for a slot at a ramp can get tedious; so I now much prefer to roll the kayak down on its cart. The only time I still use a ramp is to take the boats out on a steep ramp after a long day

You'll save quite a bit in weight by using tubing only instead of the decking I have. It's nice to be able to move around on the decking, but it adds quite a bit of weight to the trailer.

Short of having a ramp for the plugin cart, some rollers on the aft end are likely to be the best solution to load the kayak. This is what I used on my previous trailer (I retrofitted some rollers from a conveyor (see my post on my old trailer at http://www.hobiecat.com/community/viewt ... 2f85dc0aac).